I can't understand the pleasure of a guy, that plays this game since 2007 with more than 35000 games, win a game vs bot.
I didn't choose my ticks, when i managed to come back bot already played 7 times (1 four and 6 doubles, i think), i asked for a restart but was the same of speaking with a wall.

I had LA-Chi and Helena-LA, having 3 x 6ers, going to get longest 44 with 10 moves ( I had played 8 moves) and before 2 last moves my laptop just turned off. Restarting took less than 5 mins and when getting back to lobby - game was over, and of course bot wasnt wise enough to connect my route with 3 and I lost.

A hearty congratulations to pditom for beating me by 81 points this afternoon. It has been a long time since I've been schooled that badly. Granted, he did accomplish the victory by joining a 1400+ game (with a sub-1400 score), and then stalling for 20 minutes after I blocked him -- until I finally got fed up and left the game in the bot's hands. But this is his moment and I don't want to detract from it by getting bogged down on minor details. So, congratulations again, pditom. You deserved it.

First, he IS a good player, and has won a legitimate share of games over the last few weeks.

However, we had an epic battle this morning (I had Kob-Erz, he had Pal-Mos). We were all over each other's routes, blocking here, countering there. It was going down to the wire, he placed a good block which required a second station from me. I was ready to play out, and played my first station.

Then, after a long pause, he plays a route that blocks my other ticket, a ticket he could not have ascertained I had. In fact, I went out of my way to make it appear I had a different second ticket.

I went ahead and just played out, eking a 7 point win despite the -10.

When I confronted him about it, he admitted he had cheated because he was upset at my blocking. He had logged in from another account and seen my tickets (since I am the higher ranked player and Dan plays open games).

First, he IS a good player, and has won a legitimate share of games over the last few weeks.

However, we had an epic battle this morning (I had Kob-Erz, he had Pal-Mos). We were all over each other's routes, blocking here, countering there. It was going down to the wire, he placed a good block which required a second station from me. I was ready to play out, and played my first station.

Then, after a long pause, he plays a route that blocks my other ticket, a ticket he could not have ascertained I had. In fact, I went out of my way to make it appear I had a different second ticket.

I went ahead and just played out, eking a 7 point win despite the -10.

When I confronted him about it, he admitted he had cheated because he was upset at my blocking. He had logged in from another account and seen my tickets (since I am the higher ranked player and Dan plays open games).

So from now on, I will only play if he has a CLOSED game.

You mean you would play him again??
Somebody who cheats should get reported to DoW and possibly be thrown out!

It's funny that you should mention this player because a very weird thing happened recently. For about 3 weeks straight, every time I logged into TTR, the player listed directly underneath my own name was Andreas Paphos. It struck me as pretty strange, so I clicked on him to see who he was. Lo and behold, my own stats showed up. I tried this at least 8 or 10 times, so it wasn't some one-time computer glitch. He's a very suspicious account -- even more so, now that I know that he's a real player &, apparently, an unethical one.

It's funny that you should mention this player because a very weird thing happened recently. For about 3 weeks straight, every time I logged into TTR, the player listed directly underneath my own name was Andreas Paphos. It struck me as pretty strange, so I clicked on him to see who he was. Lo and behold, my own stats showed up. I tried this at least 8 or 10 times, so it wasn't some one-time computer glitch. He's a very suspicious account -- even more so, now that I know that he's a real player &, apparently, an unethical one.

I don't know about the first part of your message (always the same 2nd player in the list), but for the second part it is a bug from DOW for weeks : when you click on the first player in the list after you, you always see your proper stats

Came into my 1500+ game and was fairly blocked out of LA NY and Chi NO against my Den Pit/Mon NO (they blocked me out of Pit once I blocked and neither of us made a tix). Threw me an 'enjoy' then wouldn't finish the game. Stalled and then took cards, still wouldn't finish, stalled, then botted. Too bad as they seemed a decent rank and competition.

Ok, I think that thread has lost its purpose and has not proved useful. We need to find better ways to deal with those situations

3 etiquette violations were mainly brought up in that topic :

1. Bot playing

One time occurence / unknown players / new 1600+ player.
This thread is really of no use to solve this problemSolutions :

Write clear etiquette rules in the forums.

If your game is labeled "2", '1400+/1500+', do not expect your opponent to know the bot rules. Send him a pm after the game and share those etiquette rules.
At worst put him on your ignore list.

2. Score boosting/multiple accounts
Every year, we have 3/4 guys who like to play themselves to climb up the rankings or to use multiple accounts as a way to satisfy their ego.
I'm not sure how often DoW reads that thread and how they proceed to solve it (warning then reset ?).

3. Cheating
We've handled all those situations ourselves since 2010, annus horribilis.
Going public at that point was, I think, necessary to show cheaters that we were taking serious actions, at least in tournaments. Since then, we have done screening at the 'gates' and more prevention.
It has brought trust back in the community, removed that issue from the forums, and offered quality tournaments.

Conclusion :
1. Write, display our etiquette rules for the community and for tournaments.
2. Keep the prevention as our primary leverage to leave cheating away from tournaments.
3. Promote communication with an unknown player, and the use of ignore list as a mean of action.
3. Hope for that communication channel with DoW to work more efficiently in the background (against score boosting, cheating), and less/not in the forums.
4. Establishing a communication channel within the community to report violations. Why not a distribution list via email ? (that could be helpful to solve other issues, like scheduling)

I think this would help to get rid of the ghosts of the past, that we should close that thread and move on.

I created it because of two thoughts:
1) It is not nice to see your name in that thread, so maybe some players tried to avoid getting in too often. No idea, whether that helped or not - my feeling is that it did not work.
2) It is a help for getting rid of frustration to write about the "terrible things", which happened to you. At least that worked, I guess.

Well, Clay Smasher should have been on everybody's ignore list after 2011's NC show in the forum.
And yet, 2 years later, tons of players have no clue about him or are still ok to play with him.

I just hope that I won't have to send a message through the contact page to get rid of cheaters or score boosters. (NDOSS/JUL1E currently)...
Waiting for a sign from DoW after their last week's meeting.

I created it because of two thoughts:
1) It is not nice to see your name in that thread, so maybe some players tried to avoid getting in too often. No idea, whether that helped or not - my feeling is that it did not work.
2) It is a help for getting rid of frustration to write about the "terrible things", which happened to you. At least that worked, I guess.

'don't play bot' is not a rule, not in my view even an etiquette, but a courtesy that can be extended if you choose. If someone chooses then say thanks, if not then perhaps if you have a lousy internet connection, or you dont have time to finish a game then perhaps you should not join a game. Naming or shaming of people who play on against an opponent who has left the table is silly.

BOOZEY, is a cheater, i was playing agains him 2 games, both games, he wait a long time on the begining of the game, and then very fast was blocking so hard one of the cities what i needed. very suspect

As the only truly unethical behavior is to observe tickets with a different account (everything else is resolved through ignoring or discussing), the following would be a possible solution, if it is technically possible:

could DoW keep track of all people observing a game? This doesn't need to be as extensive as history or post. The record could be kept for just a week or less and be given to a player only on request to the administartors.

This would make it clear if players like Awl A Board or Boozey are cheating or not. It's not good to spoil a player's name without hard evidence. Better lose a game and some points and just put them on Ignore list.